This document provides information about blood types and their classification systems, as well as an overview of human evolution from early hominins to modern Homo sapiens. It discusses the ABO and Rh blood type systems, as well as minor systems. Key hominin species discussed include Ardipithecus, Australopithecus, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo neanderthalensis, and Homo sapiens. It also provides a brief overview of the geological time scale and its use in classifying eras from the Precambrian to the Phanerozoic.

1. 1
Blood Types
Blood
- Important for Homeostasis
- Stabilizing the temperature,
osmotic pressure, and by
eliminating excess heat. Blood
supports growth by distributing
nutrients and hormones, and by
removing waste
Blood Type Systems
ABO System
The ABO system categorizes blood into
four types: A, B, AB, and O, based on the
presence or absence of specific antigens
on the surface of red blood cells.
Rh System
The Rh system classifies blood into
Rh-positive (Rh+) and Rh-negative (Rh-)
types based on the presence or absence
of the Rh antigen on red blood cells.
Minor Blood Type Systems
Kell System: The Kell system consists of
numerous antigens, with the K and k
antigens being the most important.
Duffy System: The Duffy system is
relevant in terms of resistance to certain
diseases, particularly malaria.
Kidd System: The Kidd system involves
antigens on red blood cells that are
associated with blood transfusion
reactions, though they are not typically
considered as significant as the ABO and
Rh systems.
Antigen and Antibodies
Antigen: They are foreign substances;
protein in nature with elicits the production
of an antibody
Antibody: Antibodies are generated in
response to the presence of specific
antigens. Each antibody is designed to
recognize and bind to a specific antigen.
Compatibility Testing: is a laboratory
procedure performed before a blood
transfusion to ensure compatibility
between the donor's blood and the
recipient's blood
.
Rouleaux formation: Which is a
phenomenon that can occur in blood when
red blood cells stack together, resembling
a stack of coins or rolls. Different from true
Agglutination.
Hemolysis: Hemolysis refers to the
rupture or destruction of red blood cells. It
can be observed when incompatible blood
types are mixed together.
Agglutination: Agglutination refers to the
clumping together of red blood cells or
other particles when certain antibodies
bind to specific antigens.
Hominids
Fossil Hominins: General Trends
Toward Homo Sapiens
- Large bulbous cranium
- Short face compared to ape
- Vertical carriage of head
- Hands and Forelimbs Adapted to
Tool Making and Use
- Bipedal Structure of Postcranial
Skeleton

2. 2
Ardipithecus Ramidus 5 to 4
MYA
● Teeth were intermediate between
those of earlier apes and afarensis
● One of the most primitive hominids
● Bipedal and about 4 ft tall
● Forest dweller
Australopithecus Anamensis
4.2 to 3.9 MYA
● A partial tibia is a strong evidence
of bipedality
● A new specie A. anamensis was
named in 1995 found in Allia bay in
Kenya
● Its body showed a bipedal features
but the skull resembles the ancient
apes
Australopithecus Afarensis 4
to 2.7 MYA
● Retained the apelike face with
sloping forehead, a distinct ridge
between the eyes, flatnose and a
chinless lower jaw.
● Has brain capacity of about 450 cc
● 3’6 to 5 ft. tall
● Fully bipedal and the thickness of
its bone showed it was strong
● Larger head with powerful jaw
- Texture was thin and graceful, and
is believed to live only in East
Africa.
- Remains of this species have been
found in Africa. East Africa was its
distribution area.
- They live in closed forests
- Height: Females - 1m; Males -
1.5m
- Did not match any species of
hominids over time.
- It was the common ancestor of
Australopithecus africanus and
Homos.
Australopithecus Africanus 3
to 2 MYA
● Was quite similar to afarensis
● Bipedal but was slightly larger in
body size
● Its brain was also slightly larger
ranging up to 500 cc
● The brain was not advance enough
for speech
● Molars was little larger than
afarensis and much larger than
modern humans
● Shape of the jaw was like the
modern human
- The first fossil remains: the
cranium of a child known as the
child of Taung. They were
discovered in 1924, in Taung,
South Africa
- His cranial capacity is 480 cm3
to
520cm3
, far below the human
current being.
- The face is shorter. The mandible
is advanced with respect to the
jaw.
- A. africanus had a bipedal running,
but still retained arboreal habits.
His weight ranged between 33 and
67 kg with a height of 1.50m.
- The absolute ages are difficult to
identify the characteristics of the
deposits. It is believed to be 2 to 3
m.a.
Australopithecus Robustus
2.2 to 1.6 MYA
● Had a body similar to that of
africanus but large more massive
skull and teeth

3. 3
● Huge face with no forehead had
large eyebrow ridges and a sagittal
crest
● Brain size was 530 cc with no
indications of speech capability
Australopithecus Boisei 2.1
to 1.1 MYA
● Quite similar to robostus with an a
more massive face
● Had huge molars, measuring 0.9
inches
● brain size was about the same size
as robostus
● About 530 cc called the handy man
because tools were found with its
fossils remains
Homo Habilis 2.4 to 1.5 MYA
● About 530 cc called the handy man
because tools were found with its
fossils remains
● Earlier fossils specimens was
about 500 cc but rose to 800 cc
toward the end of life period
● Some speech had developed 5’tall
and weighed about 100 lbs.
● Capable of rudimentary speech
Fossils
- Fossils found in Africa between
1962 and 1964.
- The remains have been found in
Kenya in the town of Koobi Fora
and Tanzania, in famous Olduvai
Gorge.
Ecosystem where they lived
- They lived in the African savannah.
- The climate was tropical. The
vegetation was mainly shrubs and
the tree were less than 10 per
square meter.
Cranial volume
- Homo habilis skull had a volume of
approximately 650-800cma3
.
- It was 44% bigger than any
Australopithecus. This represents
a huge boost for the brain in
Relation to the body.
Diet
- Their diet was completely
omnivorous.
- Sat fat and animal protein allowed
the development of the brain at the
expense of other energetically
expensive organs.
Lithic Industry
- The size of stones was a simple
mechanical process: holding on
with one hand, a stone, harder
than you wanted to carve, and on
the other hand, they wanted to
shape. Thus, removing the stone
hit on the number of slices. Thus, it
was creating a kind of tip, which
was used to cut or nailing.
Other species which they lived with
- The Homo habilis coexisted with
Homo erectus and Paranthropus
(Australophitecus).
Homo Ergaster
They lived in Africa, and they also lived in
Europe and Asia.
Lithic Industry
- Homo Ergaster developed type 2
of the stone tools industry.
- Bifacial axes are typical tools
obtained using these techniques.
- This type of industry was very
successful and humans used it
during a long period of time.
Skull - around 850cm3
Homo Erectus 2.0 to 0.4
MYA
● Had 900 brain size on the average
● Had speech
● Developed tools, weapons and fire
, and learned to cook his food

4. 4
● Traveled to Africa into china and
southeast asia and developed
clothing for northern climates
● Massive jaws and huge molars,
● No chins thick brow ridges
● Long low skull
- First great human explorers.
Scientists find evidence of this
species from Spain to Asia.
- Their greatest achievement was
the use of fire.
Skull
- Between 800 and 1200cm3
(mean
size increased along their
evolution)
Homo Heidelbergensis 0.4 to
0.2 MYA
● Provides the bridge between the
erectus and homo sapiensbrain
average about 1200 cc speech
was indicated
● Skull are more rounded and with
smaller features molars and brow
ridges are smaller
- They were alive from 500,000
years ago to, at least, 250,000
years ago.
- Their remains were from Europe
and Asia
- Homo Heidelbergensis diet was
omnivorous
- They evolved to Homo
Neanderthalensis in Europe.
- Frontal and parietal lobes of the
brain were enlarged
Anatomic Characteristics
- The jaws also had a large force.
- The skull has superciliary arches
What was the ecosystem where it
lived?
- The ecosystem where they lived
was of forests, steppes and plains.
Brain Volume
- Its cranial capacity is 1100 to
1400cm3
Height: 1.7m
Homo Neanderthalensis 0.2
to 0.03 MYA
● Lived in europe and the mideast
● Co existed with H. sapiens
● Brain sizes average 1,400 cc but
but the head was shaped
differently longer and lower than
modern man
● 5 '6 tall massive and he had a
receding forehead like erectus.
- The oldest remains are found in
Africa.
- Neanderthal skulls were first
discovered in Engis (Belgium) and
in Forbes’ Quarry (Gibraltar).
- Is an extinct member of the Homo
genus that is known from
Pleistocene specimens found in
Europe and parts of western and
central Asia.
- Divje Babe flute
Ecosystem where they lived
- It was a species well adapted to
cold weather thanks to its broad
and elongated skulls, their
robustness, short and broad nose.
- It is known that they lived in
organized groups that were
composed of about 30 members.
Cranial volume/Height/Features
- Characteristics: strong skeleton,
wide pelvis, short legs, barrel
chest, low forehead, jaws without
menthol and large cranial
capacity—1,500cm3
—
Diet
- Fossil remains provide evidence
that they moved in small groups
possibly occupying areas
seasonally and subsisting by
hunting big-game such as reindeer.
Animal bones found with

5. 5
Neanderthal remains are mostly
cold adapted species such as
reindeer, bison, elk, arctic fox,
lemming and mammoth. These
Neanderthals had diets similar to
nonhuman carnivores.
Period existed
- It appears about 200,000 years old
and disappeared 35,000 years
ago, during the Pleistocene.
- His disappearance could be due to
lack of adaptation to the Homo
sapiens
- They coexisted with Homo
sapiens.
Homo Sapiens Sapiens 0.2
to Present
● First appeared about 120,000
years ago
● Modern humans have an average
brain size of 1350 cc
● Forehead rises sharply, eyebrow
ridges are very small or more
usually absent , the chin is
prominent and the skeleton is
gracile
● Toolkits started becoming markedly
more sophisticated, using a variety
of raw materials such as bones
and antlers
● Fine artworks in the form of
decorated tools, beads ivory
carvings of humans and animals,
clay figurines, musical instruments,
spectacular cave paintings
Geological Time Scale
The geologic time scale divides up the
history of the earth based on life-forms
that have existed during specific times
since the creation of the planet. These
divisions are called geochronologic units.
Divisions
Eons: Longest Subdivision; based on the
abundance of certain fossils
Eras: Next to longest subdivision; marked
by major changes in the fossil record
Periods: Based on types of life existing at
the time
Epochs: Shortest subdivision; marked by
differences in life forms and can vary from
continent to continent.
Eons
Precambrian: Earliest span of time
Phanerozoic: Everything since
Eras Under Precambrian
● Hadean
- a period of time for which
we have no rock record,
and the Archean followed,
which corresponds to the
ages of the oldest known
rocks on earth.
● Archean
● Proterozoic
- No life possible as the
Earth initially forms 4.6
billion years ago.
- Simple, single-celled forms
of life appear 3.8 billion
years ago, becoming more
complex and successful
over the next 3 billion
years: Prokaryotes then
Eukaryotes
- Cyanobacteria begins
producing free oxygen
(photosynthesis)
- Land masses gather to
make up a continent called
“Rodinia”
Eras Under Phanerozoic
● Paleozoic - “Age of Invertebrates”
● Mesozoic - “Age of Reptiles”

6. 6
● Cenozoic - “Age of Mammals”
Periods Under Paleozoic
● Cambrian
- Explosion of life
- All existing phyla come into
being at this time Life forms
in warm seas as oxygen
levels rise enough to
support life
- Dominant animals: Marine
invertebrates (trilobites and
brachiopods)
- Supercontinent Gondwana
forms near the South Pole
(note position of
present-day Florida)
- Name is from the Latin
name for Wales. Named
for exposures of strata
found in a type-section in
Wales by British geologist
Adam Sedgwick.
● Ordovician
- The 1st animals with bones
appear, though dominant
animals are still trilobites,
brachiopods and corals
- The beginning of the
construction of South
Carolina
- A very cold time in Earth‟s
history: there was a great
extinction due to ice caps in
present-day Africa
- Four main continents:
Gondwana, Baltica, Siberia
and Laurentia
● Silurian
- First land plants appear
and land animals follow
- Laurentia collides with
Baltica and closes the
Iapetus Sea.
- Coral reefs expand and
land plants begin to
colonize barren land.
- First millipede fossils and
sea scorpions (Euryptides)
found in this period
● Devonian
- “Age of the Fish”
- Pre-Pangea forms.
Dominant animal: fish
- Oceans still freshwater and
fish migrate from the
southern hemisphere to
North America.
- Present-day Arctic Canada
was at the equator and
hardwoods began to grow.
- Amphibians, evergreens
and ferns appear
- The Acadian Orogeny,
leading to S.C.
metamorphism
- Named after significant
outcrops first discovered
near Devonshire, England
● Carboniferous (Mississippi. &
Pennsylvanian)
Mississippi
- First seed plants appear
- Much of North America is
covered by shallow seas
and sea life flourishes
(bryoza, brachipods,
blastoids)
Pennsylvanian
➢ Modern North America
begins to form
➢ Ice covers the southern
hemisphere and coal
swamps formed along
equator.
➢ Lizards and winged insects
first appear.
● Permian
- Last period of the Paleozoic
- Pangea forms. Reptiles
spread across continents.
- The Appalachians rise
- 90% of Earth‟s species
become extinct due to

7. 7
volcanism in Siberia. This
marks the end of trilobites,
ammonoids, blastoids, and
most fish.
Periods Under Mesozoic
● Triassic
- First dinosaurs appear
- First mammals - small
rodents appear
- Life and fauna re-diversify
- Rocky Mountains form.
- First turtle fossil from this
period
- Pangea breaks apart
● Jurassic
- Pangea still breaking apart
- Dinosaurs flourish “Golden
age of dinosaurs”
- First birds appear
- North America continues to
rotate away from Africa
- Named for representative
strata first seen in the Jura
Mountains by German
geologist Humboldt in
1795)
● Cretaceous
- T-Rex develops
- First snakes and primates
appear
- Deciduous trees and
grasses common
- First flowering plants
- Mass extinction marks the
end of the Mesozoic Era,
with the demise of
dinoaurs and 25% of all
marine life.
- From the Latin “creta”
meaning chalk by a Belgian
geologist
Periods Under Paleozoic
● Paleogene
● Neogene
● Quaternary
Epochs Under Paleogene
● Paleocene
- First horses appear and
tropical plants dominate
● Eocene
- Grasses spread and
whales, rhinos, elephants
and other large mammals
develop. Sea level rises
and limestone deposits
form in S.C.
● Oligocene
- Dogs, cats, and apes
appear
Epochs Under Neogene
● Miocene
- Horses, mastadons,
camels, and tigers roam
free in S.C.
● Pliocene
- Hominids develop and the
Grand Canyon forms
Epochs Under Quaternary
● Pleistocene
- Modern humans develop
and ice sheets are
predominant - Ice age
● Holocene
- Holocene Humans flourish
CAMBRIAN EXPLOSION is the belief that
there was a sudden, apparent explosion of
diversity in life forms about 545 million
years ago. The explosion created the
complexity of multi-celled organisms in a
relatively short time frame of 5 to 10
million years. This explosion also created
most of the major extant animal groups
today.

8. 8
Adaptation and ‘Survival of
the Fittest’
Natural selection refers to the process
where over long periods of time, helpful
variations can appear in a species while
“unfavorable” one disappear.
Because their chances of surviving are
increased, their chances of reproducing
offspring are better, and their offspring will
possess the same strong traits. This is
the basis for natural selection over long
periods of time.
Punctuated Events Through
Geologic Time
I. Impact
The most well-known extinction is the
extinction of the dinosaurs. Scientists
think that this mass extinction was caused
by a large comet that impacted the earth
in present- day Mexico, causing a
massive quantity of dust to rise up into the
atmosphere, possibly blocking out the
sun and affecting the oxygen levels of
Earth. Many plants died, and the animals
that depended on those plant for life died
as well. In addition, it may have become
very cold in a short period of time.
It took millions of years for the earth to
recover, and when it did, the large
dinosaurs were gone forever.
Certain species of birds, however, did
survive and began to flourish. Birds are
thought to be direct descendants of
dinosaurs.
II. Climate Change
Climate has always been a constantly
changing phenomenon. The earliest
atmosphere was devoid of free oxygen,
and it wasn‟t until the earliest life forms
evolved that the present-day atmosphere
began to form approximately 600 million
years ago.
During the Paleozoic, warm shallow seas
and tropical climates were common. Life
forms that could not adapt to these
conditions disappeared.
Throughout the Mesozoic era, plate
movement shifted the continents and only
the animals and plants with the greatest
ability to adapt could survive the extreme
changes in temperatures that occurred as
a consequence. Plants with seed
coverings and animals with constant
internal temperatures (warm-blooded)
lived during this era.
Climate continued to change during the
Cenozoic and continues to change to this
day, as issues of “Global Warming” have
been on the fore-front for over a decade. It
was only ~12,000 years ago that the
world was in an “ice age” mode. Also,
many mountain ranges formed during this
era, causing climate differences due to
elevation changes.
Ice ages have occurred many times in
Earth‟s history. Climate shifts like these
may be caused by magnetic polar
reversals or variation in the tilt of the earth
(called Milankovitch cycles). Obviously,
not all life can adapt to the extreme cold.
Also, not all animals can adapt to the
warming climate at the end of an ice age,
which probably contributed to the
extinction of the wooly mammoth.
III. Volcanic Activity
Significant volcanic activity, which
produced ash clouds in the air and lava
flows on the Earth‟s surface, was
common during the Precambrian. It was
extremely hot, and most life forms could
not exist in these conditions.

9. 9
Volcanism is a common byproduct of
tectonic plate collision. If one plate
collides with another and is pulled
underneath it, a subduction zone is
formed underneath the plates and a
volcanic arc forms on the Earth‟s surface.
During the Paleozoic and Mesozoic,
continents were regularly colliding with
each other and volcanism was common.
Plate boundaries are still the most
common sites of volcanoes today.
If volcanism is significant enough to
produce mass quantities of ash and
volatile gases, wind can carry these into
the upper atmosphere all around the
world, potentially enveloping the earth in
semi-darkness and reducing insulation on
earth. Obviously, this would have an
effect on all living things on Earth.
A cause and effect phenomenon,
catastrophic events impact life on Earth,
whether through an extinction or creation
of new traits for adaptation to already
existing plants and animals.
Extinction
Organisms that cannot survive a
catastrophic or significant change in
earth‟s climate usually become extinct.
Extinctions are a way of clearing the path
for new kinds of life that is potentially
more advanced. This is a natural part of
life‟s process.
Natural phenomena that can contribute
to the extinction of a species include
global climate changes, volcanic
explosions, and celestial impacts.
Fossils
Types of Fossils
● Molds - Impression made in a
substrate = negative image of an
organism
Ex: Shells
● Casts - When a mold is filled in
Ex: Bones and teeth
● Petrified - Organic material is
converted into stone
Ex: Petrified trees; Coal balls (fossilized
plants and their tissues, in round ball
shape)
● Original Remains - Preserved
wholly (frozen in ice, trapped in tar
pits, dried/ desiccated inside caves
in arid regions or encased in
amber/ fossilized resin)
Ex: Wooly mammoth; Amber from the
Baltic Sea region
● Carbon Film - Carbon impression
in sedimentary rocks
Ex: Leaf impression on the rock
● Trace/Ichnofossils - Record the
movements and behaviors of the
organism
Ex: Trackways, tooth marks, gizzard
rocks, coprolites (fossilized dungs),
burrows and
Nests
Ways of Fossilization
1. Unaltered preservation - Small
organism or part trapped in amber,
hardened plant sap
2. Permineralization/Petrification -
The organic contents of bone and
wood are replaced with silica,
calcite or pyrite, forming a rock-like
fossil
3. Replacement - hard parts are
dissolved and replaced by other
minerals, like calcite, silica, pyrite,
or iron

10. 10
4. Carbonization or Coalification -
The other elements are removed
and only the carbon remained
5. Recrystallization - Hard parts are
converted to more stable minerals
or small crystals turn into larger
crystals
6. Authigenic preservation - Molds
and casts are formed after most of
the organism have been destroyed
or dissolved
Relative Dating
● Based upon the study of layer of
rocks
● Does not tell the exact age: only
compare fossils as older or
younger, depends on their position
in rock layer
● Fossils in the uppermost rock
layer/ strata are younger while
those in the lowermost deposition
are oldest
● Stratigraphy - the study of layered
rock
● Index Fossils - fossils from
short-lived organisms that lived in
many places; used to define and
identify geologic periods
Laws/Principles of
Stratigraphy
1. Law of superposition - Younger
layers of rock sit atop older layers
2. Law of original horizontality -
Layers of sedimentary rock are
originally deposited flat.
3. Law of cross-cutting
relationships - A rock feature that
cuts across another feature must
be younger than the rock that it
cuts.
4. Inclusion principle: Small
fragments of one type of rock but
embedded in a second type of
rock must have formed first, and
were included when the second
rock was forming.
5. Law of lateral continuity - Layers
of rock are continuous until they
encounter other solid bodies that
block their deposition or until they
are acted upon by agents that
appeared after deposition took
place.
6. The principle of biological
succession - Each age in the
earth‟s history is unique such that
fossil remains will be unique. This
permits vertical and horizontal
correlation of the rock layers
based on fossil species.
Types of Unconformities
1. Angular: Horizontal beds are
uplifted and tilted or eroded
followed by new deposition of
horizontal beds. The figure to the
right is an angular unconformity.
2. Disconformity: Episodes of
erosion or non- deposition
between layers
3. Nonconformity: Sediment is
deposited on top of eroded
volcanic or metamorphic rock
Absolute Dating
● Determines the actual age of the
fossil
● Through radiometric dating, using
radioactive isotopes carbon-14 and
potassium-40
● Considers the half-life or the time it
takes for half of the atoms of the
radioactive element to decay
● The decay products of radioactive
isotopes are stable atoms.
● If a scientist knows the half-life of
the parent and measures the

11. 11
proportion of parent isotope to
daughter isotope, he/she can
calculate the absolute age of the
rock. This valuable method is
called radiometric dating.
Radioactive Decay
Scientists used the proportion of parent
material remaining to the proportion of
daughter material produced in order to
predict the age of the rock. During each
half- life, only one-half of the parent
material decays to the daughter product.
Isotopes with very long half-lives are not
suitable for dating rocks younger than ~1
million years because there are too few
daughter atoms to be measured
accurately.
Experimental error limits measurements to
those rocks younger than about 12
half-lives of the isotope used.
Radiocarbon Dating
Radiocarbon dating is a common method
used to date anything that was once alive
(including plants) and up to 70,000 years
old.
How is C-14 produced?
Cosmic rays hits N-14 and turns into C-14
Commonly used radioactive
isotopes
Parent Daughter Half-life Material
U-238 Pb-206 4.56 BY Zircon,
Uraninite,
Pitchblende
U-235 Pb-207 704 MY Zircon,
Uraninite,
Pitchblende
K-40 Ar-40 1.251 BY Muscovite,
biotite,
hornblende,
K-feldspar,
volcanic
rock,
glauconite,
conodonts
Rb-87 Sr-87 48.8BY K-mica,
K-feldspar,
Biotite,
Metamorphi
cs
Th-230 Pb-206 75KY Ocean
sediments
Th-323 Pb-208 1.39BY Zircon,
Uraninite,
Pitchblende
C-14 N-14 5730yr Wood,
bone, shell